Donald Antrim joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Balloon,” by Donald Barthelme, which was published in The New Yorker in 1966. Antrim is the author of three novels and the story collection “The Emerald Light in the Air.” His memoir, “One Friday in April: A Story of Suicide and Survival,” will be published this month. “The Balloon” (c) 1966, by Donald Barthelme, performed with permission of the Wylie Agency, LLC.

Rebecca Curtis joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” by Haruki Murakami, which was published in The New Yorker in 2020. Curtis is the author of the story collection “Twenty Grand: and Other Tales of Love and Money.”

Ann Patchett joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Proxy Marriage,” by Maile Meloy, which was published in The New Yorker in 2012. Patchett is the author of eight novels, including “Commonwealth” and “The Dutch House,” which was a finalist for last year’s Pulitzer Prize.

Susan Choi joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Found Objects,” by Jennifer Egan, which was published in The New Yorker in 2007. Choi is the author of five novels, including “My Education” and “Trust Exercise,” which won the National Book Award in 2019.

Ben Okri joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Rescue Will Begin in Its Own Time,” four short fiction pieces by Franz Kafka, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann, which were published in The New Yorker in June of 2020. Okri is the author of two dozen books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including the novels “The Famished Road,” which won the Booker Prize in 1991, and “The Freedom Artist,” which was published in 2019.